


This Used to Be

by eerian_sadow



Series: Avalon [97]
Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Generation One
Genre: Family, Fighting, Gen, Grief, Running Away
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-07-11
Updated: 2008-07-11
Packaged: 2018-10-14 22:33:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10545454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eerian_sadow/pseuds/eerian_sadow
Summary: Snapshots of life with Prowl and his family, focusing on his little sister Crossfire.





	

**Author's Note:**

> now that the june contest is over at [](http://tfic-contest.livejournal.com/profile)[tfic_contest](http://tfic-contest.livejournal.com/), i can post this here and over at the avalon archive. i lost the contest horribly, but that was really okay by me, since it was really just a convient excuse to write this.

Prowl pulled himself onto a storage crate to look up at the small body laying on his creator’s worktable. “Is he broken?”

Quickfoot gave him a bright smile. “No, _she_ is not broken. I haven’t finished making her yet.”

“Oh.” The young mech studied the still form for a long moment. “May I help?”

The older mech’s smile grew. “Indeed you may. But there isn’t much left to do.”

“That’s okay.”

Quickfoot’s steady hands guided Prowl’s as they connected synaptic relays and filled the femme’s fuel tank with energon. When the relays were connected and her tank was full, the older mech took a small brightly glowing sphere from his chest compartment.

“What is that?” Prowl asked.

“This,” His creator replied, placing the sphere into the chest compartment of the body on the worktable, “Is her spark. A very dear friend helped me make it.”

“What does it do?”

“It will give her life.”

“Oh.” The sparkling moved closer, watching the older mech work. His optics followed every movement as Quickfoot closed the femme’s chest and activated her start-up program. “Does she have a designation yet?”

“Not yet. We have to give her time for her personality to develop first.” Quickfoot wrapped an arm around his oldest sparkling as the femme’s systems started and her optics came online. “Prowl, say hello your sister.”

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

They had both helped Quickfoot build bodies for all their other siblings. Crossfire had been proud to have gotten to work on all of her younger brothers.

Prowl was proud to see them all together as a family.

Being the oldest, Prowl and Crossfire were often left in charge of their four siblings when Quickfoot was called away to work. They never minded the job; it was usually easy to take care of them. They would talk while Spanner and Cable played together and Stripe and Solid painted or drew.

They were watching Spanner help Cable put together a tower from some scrap metal Quickfoot had bought for them to play with. The twins were a short distance away, painting with a new set of pigments their creator had brought back from his last business trip.

None of them noticed the other sparklings come into the park until the bullies picked up one of the pigment jars.

“No, don’t!” the twins wailed in unison.

“Oh, not again,” Cable said as the bullying mech dumped the pigment out all over the twins and their painting.

Prowl and Crossfire turned and charged the bullies as they were dumping the rest of the pigments out all over Stripe and Solid.

“Leave my brothers alone!” the femme said as she leaped onto one bully’s back. Prowl grabbed the other bully by the wrist and flung him to the ground.

They loved the twins dearly, but sometimes Prowl and Crossfire thought the trouble they always managed to attract was more of a burden than they were worth. The bullies were always after them—considering them easy targets because they wouldn’t fight back.

Stripe and Solid sat in the ruins of their latest artistic endeavor, watching as their older siblings beat the bullies back for them again.

“I’m sorry, Prowl,” Stripe said once the fight was over and the oldest sparkling came to help him up.

“Thank you, Crossfire,” Solid added, knowing that his sister had been the first to strike against the bullies this time.

Crossfire shook her head. “Don’t thank me. Start fighting back!”

“We don’t know how,” the twins said in unison. Crossfire shook her head again, not knowing what to do with them.

“Let’s go home,” Prowl said. “Quickfoot will know what to do.”

Cable and Spanner picked up their scrap metal without a word. Each of the older sparklings took one of the twins’ hands as they walked back to their house.

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

Prowl was downloading the last of his personal files to a portable storage device for transport to school when Crossfire came into his room. She came in unannounced often enough that he didn’t remark upon her sudden appearance. In fact, he didn’t say anything until she spoke to him.

“I’m scared, Prowl.”

Prowl turned from his computer and looked at his sister with confusion. “What are you scared of?”

“Boarding school. We’ll be so far away from everyone.” Crossfire sat down on his recharge berth and pulled her knees up under her chin. “What if the other students hate me?”

“I will not hate you.” He stood up from his workstation and crossed the room to sit beside her. “I will be there too. Do not be afraid.”

“Prowl?”

“Yes?”

“Promise you won’t leave me?”

“I promise.”

“Even if you make a new best friend?” Her voice was serious.

“I will never make a new best friend,” Prowl assured her. “But I will never leave you. And we will come home for holidays and Quickfoot promised to visit whenever he can get away from his office. Everything will be fine.”

“If you say so,” she replied.

“I know so. I have been there for a meta-cycle already, remember?” He gave her a smile.

Crossfire smiled back.

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

Shockwave had laughed when they found out that Crossfire would be graduation a full meta-cycle before them. Somewhere along the way, she had taken enough extra class credits to complete her certification for the security division before they even qualified for specialized training.

Prowl thought Crossfire had never looked as beautiful as she did the moment she accepted her certification at the graduation ceremony. She had come so far while they were in school; the high gloss lacquer and chrome detailing paled beside the inner strength and beauty she had found. He was incredibly proud of her.

Crossfire beamed and held up the certificate, waving furiously at him. He and Shockwave didn’t cheer for her—it was not logical since she would never hear them—but they did wave back. A moment later, Crossfire’s friend Meltdown joined her and she waved at the two mechs in the stands as well.

Prowl was glad that his sister had finally found a friend her own gender. Living with five brothers and only spending time with their friends had not been good for her.

“She will do well in the security division,” Shockwave said.

Prowl smiled. “Yes she will.”

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

“I though you had a duty shift today,” Prowl said when he entered his recharge room and found his sister sitting on his berth.

Crossfire shook her head. “I changed shifts with Meltdown. I wanted to see you before you left.”

“Shockwave told you, then?”

She nodded. “He said the two of you were both going back to the Academy for special tactical training. And that you’ll be joining the military when you graduate.”

“We are, and I will. Quickfoot approves of my decision, and the army is always short of mechs with tactical training.”

“I know. We could use some of them in the security force, too.” She stood, revealing a long box lying on the berth behind her. “I didn’t come to criticize your decision.”

“Then why are you here? It is a lot of work to change a duty shift.”

Crossfire picked up the box and held it out to him. “I want you to have this.”

Prowl took the box carefully. His optics widened when he opened it. “This is the rifle Quickfoot gave you for graduation!”

She nodded. “I’m not very good with rifles, but I thought it might be able to help you when you joined the army.”

He leaned the rifle against the wall and took a step closer to his sister. “Thank you,” he said, pulling her into a hug.

“You’re welcome.”

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

He had come home for the twins’ gallery opening. It had gone exceptionally well. Prowl was glad for that; the gallery opening was the only thing going right tonight.

“Absolutely not!” Quickfoot shouted. “I refuse to allow you to monopolize another femme by spark bonding!”

Crossfire was seething. Prowl could almost see the anger pouring off her; he was glad that Shockwave had offered to take the twins out to celebrate their success.

“With respect, _Creator_ , you can’t tell me what to do. If I want to bond with Meltdown, that’s my business, not yours. You have no right to try and stop me.”

“You will do as I say if you want to continue living in this house!”

Prowl cringed. Threats had never been the way to get Crossfire to see reason. “Quickfoot, perhaps if you explained yourself more logically…”

“Be silent, Prowl! This is between your sister and me!” Quickfoot’s anger was fast to change targets.

“She’s gone,” Prowl said, pointing down the hallway. “And you should cool your anger before you speak to her again.”

Quickfoot turned to follow Prowl’s gaze. It was obvious that none of his creator’s anger had cooled, but he seemed to be thinking more clearly. “Perhaps you are right.”

Prowl watched sadly as the older mech walked to his recharge room, looking defeated. He was not pleased with how his creator had been acting, but he hadn’t meant to hurt Quickfoot.

He didn’t worry, though. Worrying was illogical, and the three of them would work this problem out. They always did.

He gave his sister a few joors to calm down, then he walked to her room. “Crossfire?”

“I don’t want to talk to him, Prowl.” Crossfire’s voice was muffled through her door.

“I know that. May I come in?”

Crossfire hesitated before replying. “Yes.”

He entered the room and closed the door behind him. Crossfire was sitting on her recharge berth with her knees pulled up to her chin and her arms wrapped around them. “Are you all right?”

“I just don’t understand. He’s always encouraged all of us to do whatever makes us happiest and now he’s telling me that I can’t be with the person I love.” She turned incredibly sad optics up to him. “Why is it so wrong for Meltdown and I to be bonded?”

“Quickfoot is not thinking logically,” Prowl assured her, giving his sister a hug. “I do not know if he is right or not, but the only logical thing for you to do is be with the person you love. If Meltdown makes you happy, then that is all that matters.”

“Only you could manage to apply logic to emotions,” Crossfire said with a weak smile.

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

He noticed the painting he had given her was gone before he noticed that Crossfire was. Later, he would wonder why that detail had stuck in his processor before any others.

Almost none of her other possessions were missing. If she hadn’t taken the painting from the wall across from the entrance, Prowl would have thought that she had simply taken a walk to cool her own anger.

The missing painting meant she was gone, and she wasn’t coming back. Crossfire had left Quickfoot’s home, just as their creator had said.

Prowl felt his spark break when he realized she hadn’t said goodbye. “I should have made you promise not to leave me,” he said to the room.  



End file.
